Hubble captures extraordinary view of Universe

[Gerald]

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has produced one of its most extraordinary views of the Universe to date.

Called the eXtreme Deep Field, the picture captures a mass of galaxies stretching back almost to the time when the first stars began to shine.

But this was no simple point and snap - some of the objects in this image are too distant and too faint for that.

Rather, this view required Hubble to stare at a tiny patch of sky for more than 500 hours to detect all the light.

"It's a really spectacular image," said Dr Michele Trenti, a science team member from the University of Cambridge, UK.

"We stared at this patch of sky for about 22 days, and have obtained a very deep view of the distant Universe, and therefore we see how galaxies were looking in its infancy."

The XDF will become a tool for astronomy. The objects embedded in it can be followed up by other telescopes. It should keep scientists busy for years, enabling them to study the full history of galaxy formation and evolution.

The new vista is actually an updating of a previous HST product - the Hubble Ultra Deep Field.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19728375


Note: 26 September 2012 Last updated at 11:55 GMT